TAKE ME THERE

I
Life has smiled on me, and I’ve smiled back.
Every good turn, they say, deserves another.
And I’ve always try’d,
At least, to return those favors that need’d reciprocation.

Someone once ask’d me,
‘Tell me your likes and dislikes.’ And I reply’d,
‘I like every thing that likes me
And I dislike every thing that dislikes me.’

I was stun’nd by my response.
It was not premeditated;
But it spoke my inner man.
Your inner man also agrees with me. Believe it or not. Still it agrees.

We are born to be loved.
And whatever doesn’t give us that,
We reply them back with cold hate or may be simple unlove.
Hate me, I hate you; love me, I love you. No love lost!

But sometimes it’s indifference:
We are neither for nor against the situation.
Yet this seeming indifference is not always what it seems.
Deep down, on the scales of conscience, it is shyly tilt’d.



II
Until last night,
I’d always believed life was unfair.
But at dawn this morning, I woke up
With the grim realization that it isn’t.

We always cry for not having
Either this or that,
Not really considering what we possess
Which those whom we think have it all don’t possess.

Look at what life does:
It calls you a philosopher and gives you the grief of deep thinking,
While it calls another carefree, insane or an imbecile
And allows them the benefit of sound laughter.


Somebody is endow’d with beauty
And it brings with it a handicap to the attainment of chastity,
The one who thinks he is ugly
Isn’t grateful for the “seldom” invitation to depravity.

No one really has it all.
You cannot have it all and still have it all!
You cannot lack the most and still lack it all!
Life, indeed, is fair.




Then I consider myself:
I am not rich and neither am I poor;
I am not tall, neither am I short;
I am not a genius, neither am I a dummy.

The ladies say I’m handsome, mold’d in the divine proportion.
But I lack the eminence of a Nephilim.
Many a fair lady have I covet’d, but they didn’t like me;
Many a fair lady has chased me, and I didn’t think them worthy.

I feel that life’s like that: you win some and you lose some.
One has to give up on this in order to own that.
If you don’t have the time for this,
Time will be made for that. It’s the general law of trade.

So I feel that to have it all is
A function of understanding opposite faces.
True insight lies in
The overall appreciation of opposing arguments.

You cannot really cherish happiness without knowing sadness;
You cannot relish glory without experiencing dirt;
You cannot appreciate love without undergoing rejection;
You cannot value health without the knowledge of ill health.



III
Now here I sit, thinking in these rhymless verses
Of a byzantine art called poetry,
Praying to be applaud’d
By those who bless your lines as worthy of ovation.

But whatever the appreciation might speak about me,
Whether they shout “more!”, “silence!”, or “leave the stage!”
Whether it’s love, indifference or hate,
I shall repay no one in their own coins. And it’s a promise.

And what recognition do I really dream of
Since the appreciation of poetry seems the reserve of a select few?
Poetry is to the arts
What chess is to the sports. Quite intricate. Quite byzantine.

Still I write,
Praying that the forces of cosmos will conspire in my favor;
To fight to take me there
Either by the effortless skills of Tai chi or the laborious Tae kwon do.

And I will keep on praying
Till my shout navigates our spherical domiciliary.
Now I heave this unrhythmic cry:
Somebody, please take me there!


An excerpt from my poetry collection TENDRILS.
David Numshi Musa © 2009